Revelations: Book One of the Lalassu (2 page)

Chapter Three

“It is a lovely view,” Dani agreed, looking out at the lights of the city spread across the darkness. The thick, plush carpeting in the hotel suite cushioned any potential footsteps. The expensive yet generic furnishings provided anonymous luxury for the right price. She’d seen dozens of them, and they’d long since ceased to impress her.

“Not half as pretty as you.” Josh smirked.

“Careful. You’re almost charming. Your reputation will be ruined.” She left the window to sit on the sinfully soft leather couch, tucking her legs under her. “You mind if I ask you a question?”

Josh shrugged, taking a hefty slug of scotch.

“What’s with the Neanderthal act?” she asked. “There have to be easier ways to get a date than intimidation.” Now that she’d surrendered to her course, her mental processes were clear enough to indulge a little curiosity.

“It saves time.” He settled next to her on the couch, smugness evident in every sinew.

“Saves time,” Dani repeated flatly, surprised.

“Yeah. You can waste a lot of time pretending to give a shit about her boring job or bullshit dreams, and then she still won’t sleep with you. Telling her what I want right up front saves me time.”

Dani shook her head, trying not to show her contempt. “That is fucked up.”

“Got you here, didn’t it?” Josh began to drag his fingers along her bare arm. “Or are you still going to pretend this isn’t what you were looking for?”

“You got me. I was searching for someone like you,” Dani admitted. No point in keeping up a pretense now. She stood, making sure he got a good eyeful of her generously curved figure. Tossing a condom on the glass coffee table, she slowly pulled down the side zipper of her dress, letting the red silk fall in a puddle at her feet.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about.” Josh eagerly ogled her crimson bra and thong.

“I went to three other bars before I hit your club. I almost gave up before you came over.” Dani slowly straddled him. She only had to keep his attention a little longer and then this would all be over.

He wasted no time and began pawing at her breasts while she talked.

“You had those two thugs-for-hire, your entourage, and Miss Copper Top. I could tell right away that you were a man who got what he wanted and didn’t worry about anything else.”

“That’s me.” He pinched her nipples through her bra. She hated it when guys did that. Some of the anticipatory guilt faded.

“The staff were afraid of you. I could smell it, see it in the way they avoided meeting your eyes and in how quickly they tried to leave. Miss Copper Top reeked of fear, too—fear and desperation. You have something over her, don’t you?” she guessed.

“She likes my lifestyle and my money. But she got boring.”

Dani began to unbutton his shirt. “So you ditched her. Picked up something shiny and new.”

He kneaded her buttocks, pushing his crotch against her. Dani forced herself to keep a smile on her face. This was about what was necessary. She had to keep her head in the game no matter how much she loathed letting him touch her.
Soon. It’ll be over soon
.

He ripped at her thong, tearing the fragile fabric. The sharp sound sparked buried memories. Dani closed her eyes, fighting the surging darkness inside.
This isn’t the time. Not yet
. Her stomach churned, knowing what was next.

While she battled her inner demons, a determined and oblivious Josh shoved down his pants and hauled out an impressively mediocre erection.

“Do you know why I was looking for you?” Dani whispered, leaning in to roll the condom over his meager assets. She barely got it on before he began to thrust up into her.

“This works better if you don’t talk,” Josh grunted, pumping frantically.

She needed skin-to-skin contact. She spread her hand over Josh’s pale chest, sweat making it cool and sticky against her palm. Concentrating, gathering her personal self—what she thought of as her soul—Dani reached deep into her psyche.

And touched a monster. The Huntress: terrifying, insatiable hunger; ancient rage howling for blood. Linked to the Goddess of her ancestors, it was part of her family’s bloodlines, a genetic curse worse than any cancer or disease.

Her eyes burned as if on fire when she opened them. A brilliant crimson circle would be glowing around the outer edge of each iris to declare the Huntress’s presence linked with her own.

“What the fuck?” Josh whimpered, staring at her gleaming eyes, the sharp bite of fear overwhelming the musky scent of his expensive cologne.

“Time to wake up.” The Huntress boiled up, surging through her and into Josh as he jerked and twitched in orgasm. Dani bit her lip as it left, rasping like harsh sandpaper against the inside of her skull. No matter how many times she did this, it was agony—even if the alternative was worse.

A familiar glaze washed over Josh’s eyes as he stared at something distant and invisible. A weak, strangled whimper passed through his thinned lips, a primal cry for help. Dani held still, all too aware of the secondhand sensation of the Huntress sinking her psychic fangs into him and wrapping him in her coils. She grew heavier and heavier as the monster pulled Josh’s soul deeper into the planes beyond the physical. All that remained was the tenuous link between Dani and the Huntress— the trail the Huntress would use to return. Emotions echoed down the connection, forcing Dani to be a passive observer of their struggle.

He was fighting hard against the attack, but no one won against the monster she carried. Once in the Huntress’s world, he couldn’t hide or lie to himself. Josh would be forced to confront the frightened coward behind his pompous bullying. He would be exposed as a spoiled, pathetic excuse for a human being. He’d have to feel the contempt and fear he’d inspired in others, experience the pain he’d caused. Once the Huntress had stripped him bare of all his illusions, it would spit him back out into his body. And then it would be sated, leaving Dani free of its demands for a while, at least.

She didn’t know why it needed to Hunt as often as it did or why it fed on self-delusion. She didn’t want to. Through the monster inside her, she caught glimpses of what the victims endured, which was more than enough. Maybe there was a time when her mother might have been able to explain, but it had passed, hidden along with their crumbling altar and buried in oppressive silence. Dani had been forced to rely on family legends and old journals, which painted the Huntress and its priestesses as conduits to the divine. The priestesses brought their lovers face to face with the gods, showing them what they truly were without the comfort of masks, intentions, or plausible lies. Of course, none of the legends talked about how painful it was or how humiliating it could feel. As far as she knew, no one had ever denied and managed the Huntress the way she did. Certainly none of the stories warned about the dangers of not satisfying the Huntress’s urges. Dani had been left to struggle with all of that on her own.

All she knew for certain was that the men she slept with would freeze with glazed eyes at the moment of orgasm. Faint echoes of their moment of clarity resonated through the Huntress and back to her. After a few seconds, their souls returned and the Huntress slithered back inside her, content and quiescent once again. And she would have a few weeks of relative peace and normality.

Five weeks since her last Hunt had left the Huntress restless and dangerous. It became contagious, leaching out of her like a psychic toxic spill. She’d seen the damage at the various bars and clubs she’d visited tonight. People who’d gone out for a good time had ended up in thrall, pursuing the Huntress’s twin lusts: sex and violence. She’d left the Hunt far too long this time. She’d hated the idea of once again allowing some random jerk inside her, but she’d hated being a source of destruction even more. She’d seen rapes and murders happen under the Huntress’s influence, and the responsibility scarred her already-battered heart. Trapped in the never-ending cycle, torn between the two demands, she could only try to scrape out some room for herself in the middle.

She Hunted carefully these days, searching for those who saw themselves as predators. After a night with her, the men would be catatonic for two or three days before coming back to themselves. Or at least mostly back. She’d seen previous lovers from time to time, and they were clearly shaken. Most went through mental and spiritual changes similar to someone who’d been through a near-death experience. Some simply ran as soon as they recognized her. They’d all recovered at least, all except…. She refused to dwell on it.

The Huntress slid back into her mind, rasping past her consciousness to bury itself deep in the darkness beyond. Dani accepted it with reluctant resignation.

Josh shook and drew in a ragged breath. Dani got off him, leaving him to curl up in a fetal position on the couch while she went to clean herself up. She hated this part of her life, but she’d learned to do what was necessary. The Huntress demanded regular feedings, and she chose to Hunt the predators: the jerks and assholes who made life miserable for everyone around them. It didn’t make a difference to the Huntress, but it kept the shreds of Dani’s conscience somewhat intact.

Josh wasn’t as bad as some of the men she’d Hunted. Selfish, arrogant, and entitled, but not evil. With luck, he’d come out of this a better person. She pulled his wallet out of his pants and eased out a twenty, enough to buy a new set of panties to replace the pair he’d ruined.

Now for the difficult part: making sure no one came looking for her.

Out of her purse she pulled a little vial of custom-made ecstasy pills with an added ingredient that would explain Josh’s symptoms. She’d never asked her supplier for details. She was burdened with far too much knowledge as it was. Tossing one underneath the couch and another on the low coffee table, she studied the scene to make sure her work was done. Tucking the vial back in her purse, she screamed as loudly as she could.

The bodyguards burst into the room. She crouched in the corner, well away from where Josh trembled and whimpered.

“What happened?” one of them demanded.

“We were… and he… oh God!” Dani hid her face in her hands, pretending to cry, eager to put this entire night behind her. One of the bodyguards picked up a phone to call 911 while the other noticed the pill on the table. That was a relief. She hated having to point the damn things out. She avoided looking where Josh lay twitching.

She had planned to slip away in the chaos of emergency services arriving, but to her surprise, the bodyguards hustled her into her clothes and out the door, pressing a wad of cash into her hand. As they shoved her into the private elevator, they warned her: “You were never here.”

Suits me fine.
She hailed a cab to return to her car and counted up the money. More than four hundred dollars. Even with expenses, not bad for the night.

Her sleek, black GT convertible was parked exactly where she’d left it, tucked into a seldom-traveled side street near Perdition’s main nightlife strip. A fast car for a fast life. Dani couldn’t help but smile as she climbed inside, letting her fingers trail along the smooth, polished steel and slick paint. She loved racing invisibly through the night, thrilling to the intoxicating combination of wind and throbbing horsepower. She inhaled the clean scent of wax and leather seats.
Home
.

Her phone rang before she could pull into traffic. The number wasn’t familiar, but something warned her to answer anyway. “Hello?”

“Dani, we’re in trouble.”

“Eric?”

Her brother’s voice was practically unrecognizable. Fear roughened his voice, cracking his usual deep, rolling bass. It wasn’t rare for her brothers to call for help—mostly for bail money—but this was different. He sounded desperate. “You have to come get us.”

“What’s going on?” Adrenaline sharpened her senses, allowing her to pick out individual threads of different scents floating in the air.

“The bodyguard job… it was a trap. Vincent’s been shot.”

Dani’s heart stopped, and the Huntress hissed beneath her subconscious. “I’m coming. Where are you?”

“A place called Rick’s Gas and Go. Route NY 13.”

It was close—ten minutes south of the city. Dani floored the accelerator, cutting across the sparse late-night traffic with reckless disregard for public safety. The engine throbbed through her seat, enhancing the fury vibrating through her veins. “Vincent… how bad?” She couldn’t make herself ask if she was racing for nothing.

“It’s in the leg. He’s bleeding a lot, but he’ll be okay.” She’d never heard her confident elder sibling so at a loss. “I’ve been carrying him. You have to warn Mom and Dad—”

“I’m getting you first,” she snarled as if denial and willpower could hold off the worst. A chill crept up but she smashed it down along with the accelerator, dismissing such inconsequential matters as speed limits.

Eric drew in a sharp breath. “They’re coming. I see lights.”

“Hide! Find somewhere and hide. I’m almost there,” Dani ordered, but the line clicked dead. She threw the phone on the seat and clenched her hands on the steering wheel. Anger and fear vied for supremacy, coiling through her tightened muscles.
Just a few more minutes.